Electronic directories for identifying selected subscribers within a city are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,170 describes one system which includes a fixed kiosk with an internal memory for storing locations such as businesses and historical sites within a predetermined distance from the kiosk. An input panel on the kiosk provides access to the data within the memory, and a map is generated by the system thereby locating the selected information from the kiosk.
However, such a system is inflexible. The map generated by the system is predefined; and thus the user cannot access or select information about businesses and historical sites outside of the predefined map. A user of the system must also know the exact location of the kiosk in order to use the system. Tourists and business travelers to the city are unlikely to know of the kiosk; and thus the kiosk system is of little use to such users. Further, a user must be physically present at the kiosk in order to access the information about the businesses and/or sites in the surrounding area.
In addition, the information stored within the kiosk's memory must be manually updated. This requires a series of cumbersome steps—including the physical acts of loading and downloading to the memory at the kiosk—to update the system in the event that information about a selected business changes, e.g., the business closes.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide systems and methods which reduce or remove the aforementioned difficulties.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system for remotely accessing selective items of interest from a database; and for displaying a geographic vicinity of the items of interest to the user selectively and at the remote location.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a system for remotely providing information identifying locations of selected items of interest at a selected destination location.
These and other objects will be apparent in the specification which follows.